Hungary
News
Reimagining Hungary’s Foreign Policy: Challenges and Opportunities for a Future Democratic Government
The April 2026 elections can mark the end of Hungary’s 16-year experiment with illiberalism and open a new chapter in its relations with Europe and the wider world. After more than a decade of multivectoral diplomacy—balancing uneasily between Brussels, Washington, Moscow, and Beijing—a new government might need to redefine the country’s place within the Euro-Atlantic community while confronting the legacies of dependency and mistrust left behind. The following analysis outlines the strategic framework for such a reorientation, mapping the challenges, trade-offs, and opportunities facing a future democratic Hungary.
25.11.2025
News
Krasznahorkai and the Art of the Voice
The Nobel Prize committee is possibly the best-known summarizer of entire literary oeuvres in the world, as it purposefully creates one-liners to justify its selection for each year, something that is then picked up and repeated by news organizations all around the globe. This year, the award was given to the Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.” This both makes and misses the point spectacularly.
17.10.2025
News
The Politics of Fiction: The Author of Satantango wins the Nobel Prize in Literature
Long considered as one of Europe’s most formidable writers, Krasznahorkai’s winning of the Nobel Prize reveals the long process that writers from East-Central Europe need for recognition. His visionary and unsettling work had an almost cult-like group of readers in Hungary already in the 1980s, but the international recognition arrived slowly. Yet through good translators and change of focus, his world of decay and irony gradually claimed its place in the global literature.
15.10.2025
Podcasts
Illiberal Transatlantic Ties and the Reshaping of Democracy: Lessons From the US and Hungary
In this episode of the Democracy After 2024 series, Zsuzsanna Végh and Daniel Hegedűs examine transatlantic cooperation between state and non-state actors in the United States and Hungary. They analyze commonalities in narratives and shared practices, assessing their impact on democracy in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the German Marshall Fund of the United States or any institutions or organizations with which they are affiliated. Zsuzsanna Végh is a program officer at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and an associate researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Her analytical focus is on the populist radical right in Central and Eastern Europe, its impact on foreign policy and democratic quality, and the foreign and EU policies of the Visegrád countries. Daniel Hegedüs is a German Marshall Fund of the [...]
16.04.2025
War is Peace – Trajectories of Failed Utopias in Eastern European Public Spaces
The political and cultural revival of Cold War narratives, the resurgence of authoritarian tendencies and, more recently, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and Donald Trump’s liaison with Hungarian far-right policymakers is drawing renewed scholarly and public attention to the Central and Eastern European region. A common characteristic of post-1989 far-right movements in Central and Eastern Europe is the strong anti-communist ideology, which remains prominent in their rhetoric. These movements not only oppose contemporary leftist formations and anti-fascist movements but also reject the legacy of socialism – while recycling elements of the latter’s organizational strategies.
15.11.2024
The Recipe Trump Will Hopefully Not Read Attentively – Measuring the US’ Political Prospects by the ‘Gold Standard’ of De-Democratization
Given all the grave concerns regarding the future of democratic norms and institutions in the US, Hungary’s transformation under Viktor Orbán’s rule offers the kind of warning that observers would ignore at their own peril. Considering the key ingredients on Orbán’s recipe of de-democratization can also help us develop a sense of proportions and nuance about what is likely to unfold under Donald Trump’s upcoming second term.
13.11.2024
Podcasts
What Drives Ordinary People to Espouse Authoritarian Figures? Kristóf Szombati on the Spatial Origins of Right-Wing Authoritarianism
The countryside has often been seen as a space where politics flows to, but does not grow out of. When it comes to the authoritarian right, this could not be further from the truth. So what draws people in rural areas to seek an ordered world? In this first episode of their new podcast This Authoritarian Life RevDem Editor Kristóf Szombati and his co-host Erdem Evren embark on an exploration of the origins of contemporary authoritarianism by inspecting the case of rural Hungary, where Kristóf had worked both as an anthropologist and a community worker. What dislocations fueled the rise of the far-right Jobbik party and what did Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party offer to temper popular discontents?
15.10.2024
Podcasts
Ask What You Can Do for Your City – Benedek Jávor on European Politics, Representing Budapest, and the Green Transition
In this conversation at the Review of Democracy, Benedek Jávor – Head of the Representation of Budapest to the European Union – discusses his current role and the evolving relationship between the European Union, the city of Budapest, and the Hungarian government; reflects on the green transition and critiques Hungary’s current energy policies; and pleads for talking responsibility locally.
4.10.2024
Podcasts
We Need Better Cohesion in Europe Because We Need Reforms and New Resources – Mikuláš Dzurinda on Slovakia’s Path, the European People’s Party, and the Future of Ukraine
In our latest podcast, Mikuláš Dzurinda – President of the Wilfried Martens Centre and former Prime Minister of Slovakia – discusses the changes that EU membership has brought to Slovakia; reflects on the recent rightward shift in Europe and how this might influence the EPP's priorities; analyzes potential changes in Slovak foreign policy and the relationship with Hungary; and argues for Ukraine’s NATO accession.
30.09.2024
Podcasts
A Revelation for the History of Social Movements in Hungary: Bernadett Sebály on “The Story of Our Struggles” Database
In this conversation, Bernadett Sebály discusses the inception and development of the online database of protest events in Hungary, 1989–2010, entitled Küzdelmeink története, or “The Story of Our Struggles”; its use in pedagogical settings for students, activists, teachers, and everyday citizens; and the importance of its place between activism and scholarly research in the Hungarian illiberal context.
26.09.2024
Podcasts
The Trojan Horse Has Arrived – András Bozóki on Autocratization, External Constraints, and the Role of His Own Generation
In this conversation at the Review of Democracy, András Bozóki – author of the new collection Töréspontok. Tanulmányok az autokrácia kialakulásáról (Breaking Points. Studies on the Formation of Autocracy) – reflects on what has made the anti-democratic turn in Hungary so effective and discusses what has surprised him the most about the evolution of the Orbán regime; comments on the regime’s attempted remaking of Hungarian elite groups and its uses of ideology to legitimate its rule; evaluates his thesis on the Orbán regime being an “externally constrained hybrid regime” in light of more recent developments; and assesses the role of his own generation, the 1989ers, in the longer arc of history.
21.08.2024
How Illiberal Memory Regimes Paved the Way for the Erosion of Academic Autonomy – Lessons from Hungary
Operating at the intersection between politics and academia, National Memory Institutes across Central and Eastern Europe have developed appealing and resonant narratives and produced a “thick” ideology. Their rise has helped normalize the erosion of autonomous, scholarly expertise in the name of an idealized national community.
7.08.2024
Podcasts
A Paradoxical Relationship? – Gergő Medve-Bálint on the First Two Decades of Hungary’s EU Membership
In this conversation, Gergő Medve-Bálint – co-editor, with András Bíró-Nagy of the new volume Húsz év az Európai Unióban. Magyarország uniós tagságának közpolitikai mérlege (Twenty Years in the European Union. A Balance Sheet of Hungary’s Membership and Public Policies) – discusses the achievements and shortcomings of Hungary’s EU membership; what continuities and ruptures there have been across these two decades; in what ways Hungary has been a reliable member of the club and where it has deviated from common agendas and policies; and what the case of Hungary may reveal about how the semi-peripheries have fared within the EU since 2004.
24.06.2024
News
How Time Has Stopped Again – Hungary and Europe Twenty Years after the EU’s Big Bang Enlargement
I would like to approach the 2004 EU accession from the perspective of time. Time is perceived to fly fast in certain periods, then it appears to slow down before speeding up again. In Hungary, for example, time stood still during the sleepy decades of state socialism before, from the late 1970s onward, transformations of historic significance occurred in no more than a couple of years. Still, although there were some cathartic episodes here and there, the change of the political and economic system took place peacefully: law professors, historians, and other intellectuals sat down at a table in 1989 to lay down the fundamentals of a new social and political order. None of them was really an expert on capitalism; they approached the issue as social scientists. The intent to create a more dynamic system—one that respected the full range of human rights as well as individual endeavors—connected these people, notwithstanding their varied backgrounds.
29.04.2024
Podcasts
The Movement for Roma Emancipation in Hungary – Angéla Kóczé Discusses the Life and Times of Ágnes Daróczi
In this conversation at the Review of Democracy, Angéla Kóczé introduces civil rights icon Ágnes Daróczi, and sketches her paths and the development of her consciousness as a Roma woman; covers the main facets of the movement of Roma emancipation in Hungary and the roles Daróczi has played in them; discusses why the nationality question has been so crucial in Daróczi’s understanding and how her agenda might be placed in transnational contexts; and reflects on the achievements and shortcomings of Hungary’s post-89 democracy and how she perceives the legacies of Daróczi.
15.04.2024
Interviews
Democracy cannot really function if it is not liberal. Interview with Cas Mudde
Among the challengers to liberal democracy in Europe, we can count populists, autocrats, and the increasingly often mentioned illiberals. But who are they and what is illiberalism? How does it relate to populism? Can illiberals be democrats at all? What are the policy implications of having illiberal politicians, especially of the radical right, in power in the EU? This interview explores these questions with Professor Cas Mudde. It covers various issues at the intersection of academic and policy research on populism, illiberalism, democracy, and the radical right. It discusses whether the growing body of literature on illiberalism addresses something that is fundamentally new on the global political agenda, how this literature relates to academic research on populism, and if illiberalism and democracy are reconcilable against the backdrop of a global trend of autocratization, which many scholars of democracy have noted, and which is often attributed to illiberal and populist [...]
8.12.2023
News
The Role of (EU) Competition Law in Defending the Rule of Law
Kati Cseres is an Associate Professor of Law at the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance (ACELG) and Program Director of the EU Law Masters at the University of Amsterdam. This series of RevDem op-eds collects reflections on the contemporaneous challenges for the Rule of Law, which stemmed from the conference organized at Radboud University (Nijmegen) on 21-22 September in honour of Prof. Petra Bàrd. This is the latest entry following previous contributions by Benedetta Lobina on the Russo-Ukrainian war, and Pauline Thinus on EU spending conditionality.
27.11.2023
Podcasts
Bloodless Murder: Stefano Bottoni on How the Orbán Regime Was Made and What Hungary Has Become
In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Stefano Bottoni – author of the new Hungarian-language book A hatalom megszállottja. Orbán Viktor Magyarországa (Obsessed with Power. Viktor Orbán’s Hungary) – discusses how the current political system has been built up in Hungary and which theories might help us analyse this process; reflects on the Orbán regime’s sources of legitimacy and internal contradictions; and explores the changing relationship of the country to the European Union and to Putin’s Russia.
6.09.2023
News
From democracy to authoritarian capitalism
In this op-ed, Gábor Scheiring explores the latest Freedom House Nations in Transit Report, its implications for Hungary, and how the report only reveals the tip of the iceberg of the democratic backsliding in Hungary.
16.06.2023
News
Suspending Hungary’s Presidency of the Council of the EU? In Conversation with John Morijn and Alberto Alemanno
In recent weeks proposals by the Meijers Committee to suspend Hungary’s Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2024 have received support in a resolution of the European Parliament. In this RevDem Rule of Law podcast, Oliver Garner discusses these proposals in the wider context of the Rule of Law crisis with John Morijn and Alberto Alemanno.
9.06.2023
News
A life for power? Viktor Orbán’s long affair with Hungary
Do the familiar tropes of anti-tyrannical literature explain anything about what happened and is still happening in contemporary Hungary, a country that has changed so profoundly not only as compared to its post-1989 realities but from its 2010 self too?
30.05.2023
The Curse of the Margin? Central Europe before and after Communism
In conversation with RevDem assistant editor Lucie Hunter, Dr. Aliaksei Kazharski discusses his newest book Central Europe Thirty Years after the Fall of Communism: A Return to the Margin? (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022, 2022).
26.05.2023
Interviews
Informal Power in Hungary and Poland: In Conversation with Edit Zgut-Przybylska
Formal Rule of Law backsliding in Hungary and Poland has been well-publicized. Yet this is just the tip of the iceberg of a system of informal power connections that are undermining the Rule of Law and democracy. In this RevDem Rule of Law podcast Oliver Garner discusses this informal power with Edit Zgut-Przybylska.
12.05.2023
News
Helsinki in Budapest: In Conversation with András Kádár and Márta Pardavi
In the latest RevDem Rule of Law podcast Oliver Garner discusses the work of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. András Kádár is an attorney at law and co-chair of the Committee. Amongst other engagements and positions he is the Hungarian member of the European Network of Legal Experts in the Non-Discrimination field. Márta Pardavi is the other co-chair of the Committee and she also co-leads the Recharging Advocacy for Rights in Europe (RARE) program. Previously, she has been a policy leader fellow at the EUI School of Transnational Governance in Florence.
3.05.2023
Orbán as Ideologue
In this post by Zsolt Enyedi, Senior Research Fellow at the CEU Democracy Institute, he argues that Orbán's regime "advantages a well-defined set of values through the allocation of resources and its signatory policies are based on a coherent set of ideas."
17.03.2023
Interviews
In conversation with Jakub Jaraczewski: The European Commission’s latest action against Poland and Hungary
In this latest RevDem Rule of Law podcast, Oliver Garner speaks to Jakub Jaraczewski about the European Commission’s latest actions to defend the EU’s values against backsliding Member States. Jakub is a Research Coordinator at Democracy Reporting International, a Berlin based NGO, and one of the coordinators of the “re:constitution” programme.
3.03.2023
Asking the wrong questions, the wrong way: Why replicating “national consultations” is an inadequate response to their success
Although national referenda have become a rare species in post-2010 Hungary, the use of another instrument of plebiscitarian democracy—non-binding informal polls called national consultations—has not only been serving as a legitimization tool of government policies, but it has also been adopted by an opposition movement as a mobilization technique. This article argues that the strategic adoption of populist democratic repertoires, along with their main procedural flaws, is a threat to democratic representation. There is a need to shift discussions toward how these processes can be improved.
19.12.2022
News
The Hungarian Government Became Hostage of Its Own Propaganda
In this conversation with RevDem Editor Robert Nemeth, Hungarian journalist Szabolcs Panyi talks about the Hungarian government’s response to the war in Ukraine, why it is not willing to counter Russian infiltration in Hungary, the reasons behind the anti-US sentiment of Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his inner circle, and anti-Western propaganda in Hungary. He also discusses how being targeted by the Pegasus spyware impacted him.
16.12.2022
Interviews
How 2000 people made an impact at a time when society was silent: András Bozóki on the rolling transition of Hungary
In this discussion, RevDem Managing Editor Michał Matlak discusses with András Bozóki about his last book, "Rolling Transition and the Role of Intellectuals: Case of Hungary", published this year by Central European University Press, which tells a compelling story of the role of intellectuals in political and social change that took place in Hungary between 1977-1994.
29.11.2022
The Trouble with Fortune: Zsuzsanna Szelényi on Hungary’s Tainted Democracy
In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Zsuzsanna Szelényi – author of the new book "Tainted Democracy. Viktor Orbán and the Subversion of Hungary" – analyzes the main characteristics of the Orbán regime and the techniques Hungary’s current rulers have employed to establish their dominance over the country’s economy; reflects on the dilemmas and strategies of the Hungarian opposition; examines the role of gendered practices in Hungarian politics; and discusses the reasons behind the sharp democratic reversal and decline of the early 21st century.
29.10.2022
Interviews
What Does Right-Wing Anti-Gender Mobilization Have to Do with Progressive Gender Trends? Eszter Kováts Investigates the Politics of Fidesz and AfD
In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Eszter Kováts discusses the conclusions she has drawn from her comparison of the discourse coalitions around AfD in Germany and Fidesz in Hungary.
17.09.2022
A Global History of Hungary: In Conversation with Ferenc Laczó, Bálint Varga, and Dóra Vargha
In this conversation with Bence Bari and Orsolya Sudár, editors Ferenc Laczó and Bálint Varga and contributor Dóra Vargha discuss the new volume "Magyarország globális története, 1869-2022 (A Global History of Hungary, 1869-2022)". The conversation focuses on some of the innovative questions posed by trying to reconceptualize the history of a Central and Eastern European country in a global frame; how the subjects of the volume’s one hundred chapters have been selected; the relation of this new book to other narratives of Hungarian history; and the more political stakes of releasing such a publication today.
20.06.2022
In Conversation with Eva Fodor: How the Carefare Gender Regime Shapes Hungary
RevDem Editor László Bence Bari in conversation with Éva Fodor, Professor at the Gender Studies and Pro-Rector of the Central European University about her latest book “The Gender Regime of Anti-Liberal Hungary”. In this book, she argues that the anti-liberal government of Hungary has established a specific kind of gender regime, the ’carefare’ policy which allows the government to stabilize and expand its rule over society and to support its ideological and political goals.
30.05.2022
George Soros’ philanthropy is based completely on values: A conversation with Peter Osnos
In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Peter Osnos discusses his new edited volume "George Soros: A Life in Full".
1.04.2022
Hungary two months before the elections – can the opposition win? Zsolt Enyedi in conversation with Daniel Rona [Party Co-Op Series]
Zsolt Enyedi discusses with Daniel Rona, director of the 21 research center the key questions related to the cooperation between the opposition parties before the April elections.
11.02.2022
Videos
The Future of Rule of Law Constitutionalism in Hungary
In the light of complex multi-level criticism of the state of the Rule of Law in Hungary and the role it plays in the European Union, the future of Rule of Law constitutionalism has been in the spotlight and subject to intense public debate among politicians, academics and the broader public. This event aimed to make a significant contribution to the on-going conversation by offering a platform to several leading personalities at the heart of the rule of law engagements to exchange views on the future of constitutionalism in Hungary. Introduction:Renáta Uitz, Co-Director, CEU Democracy Institute; Professor, CEU Department of Legal Studies Speakers:Michal Šimečka, Vice President, European ParliamentPéter Márki-Zay, Candidate for Prime Minister, Mayor of Hódmezővásárhely, HungaryKim Lane Scheppele, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Princeton UniversityAndrás Sajó, Senior Research Fellow, CEU Democracy Institute; Professor, CEU Department of [...]
3.02.2022
‘In the Name of the Family’: Conference Report on the Budapest Demographic Summit
The authors summarize and contextualize the content of the summit to argue that the conference not only provided an opportunity for its participants to address the ‘demographic crisis’ in Europe and the ‘family politics of conservative’ governments,’ but also amounted to an attempt to develop a transnational narrative for such self-declared conservatives that could unite political and ideological actors on various continents.
24.11.2021
Informal power – undermining democracy under the EU’s radar in Hungary and Poland
In this article, Edit Zgut discusses how the governments in Hungary and Poland have been able to undermine democracy using informal power, namely political clientism and media capture, while "flying beneath the radar" of EU's mechanisms which are meant to prevent such deteriorations.
12.11.2021
How populists change parliaments
In their op-ed, Aleksandra Maatsch and Eric Miklin argue populist parties are both willing and able to weaken or even disempower representative institutions.
9.11.2021
Márki-Zay would be a Never Trump Republican in America
In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Gábor Tóka talks about the Fall 2021 Hungarian opposition primaries
30.10.2021
Zsolt Enyedi: Is it still possible to win an election in Hungary, if you’re not Viktor Orbán?
Michal Matlak interviews Zsolt Enyedi about the development of Church-State relations in Hungary, Viktor Orban’s vision of Christian Democracy, why the Democracy Institute plays an important symbolic role in Budapest, and about his recently published book, “Party System Closure: Party Alliances, Government Alternatives, and Democracy in Europe”
29.10.2021
